H15 Ministries, pictured here as volunteers work on restoring the downtown Millersburg building on Jackson Street, and Holmes County Habitat for Humanity will be the recipients of the efforts of this year’s Leadership Holmes County members. The LHC members will host a fundraiser dinner night titled “Helping Holmes County” that will take place May 2 at Der Dutchman Restaurant.

Submitted

With the theme of “Helping Holmes County,” the nearly two-dozen members of Leadership Holmes County will present a night of food and fellowship during its fundraiser dinner at Der Dutchman Restaurant in Walnut Creek on May 2 from 4-7 p.m. The public is invited to this family-friendly event that the members have called “an evening of people helping people.”

Part of the LHC mantra is to create opportunities to make a difference in the community. The members put their collective heads together and came up with the idea of a dinner that will benefit two local nonprofit organizations. Funds from the evening will be evenly split between H15 Ministries and Holmes County Habitat for Humanity.

H15 Ministries is a work-in-process youth program organization that is currently in the process of being created in downtown Millersburg. Holmes County Habitat for Humanity has been building partnerships and homes for area families for years, and the members of LHC felt both would be worthwhile organizations to help fund.

“Part of the goal for Leadership Holmes County is for each class to come up with a community service project,” member Matt Keeler said. “It’s up to the class to come up with how they want to best serve the community. For us we had a couple of groups that we were connected with that we felt would be very worthwhile to help, so we decided to split our dinner fundraiser between the two.”

Fifteen percent of each meal and all gratuities plus any other donations will go into the LHC coffer.

“We felt that while there is a need for volunteers for H15 Ministries, there is a great need financially too, so we brainstormed how we could do a fundraiser, and the idea for the fundraiser dinner at Der Dutchman came up. And Habitat for Humanity has been such a big part of our community for a long time, so they both made sense.”

Patrons dining at Der Dutchman during that evening will be hosted and served by members of LHC. But not only will the LHC members utilize the dinner evening to create funds for their two nonprofit organizations, they also are going to volunteer their time to help physically when the time comes.

According to Keeler, the members of the LHC team will be volunteering at H15 Ministries in the coming weeks to help complete some of the necessary remodeling work that will help perpetuate the grand opening of the facility. In August the group will invest some time in helping to erect the newest home addition of the Habitat family.

Those wishing to attend the dinner fundraiser should use the Der Dutchman banquet entrance on the west side of the restaurant.

Leadership Holmes County is a dynamic yearly program that seeks to increase the number of leaders in Holmes County through leadership training and skills development. The program was created by the Holmes County Chamber of Commerce, and its main function is to serve as a conduit to promoting a healthier understanding of how Holmes County operates.

Its mission is to promote overall leadership development in Holmes County; to provide leadership training; to increase the number of leaders in business, community and government; to increase awareness of Holmes County resources, challenges and opportunities; and to promote networking among Holmes County leaders.

“It has been really educational,” Keeler said. “We have all learned a lot about what drives our local economy and how things are structured, and more importantly it has helped us all connect with our peers and develop relationships as we take on a leadership role in Holmes County.”